MUMBAI: Indian authorities ordered evacuations in southwestern Andhra Pradesh ahead of a severe cyclone expected to make landfall by Wednesday, the national weather office said.
Cyclone Arnab is forecast to hit the coast as a “very severe cyclonic storm”, with gusts of up to 140 kilometres (87 miles) per hour, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a bulletin on Tuesday.
Cyclones, known as hurricanes in the North Atlantic and typhoons in the Pacific, are a regular menace in the Bay of Bengal and the northern Indian Ocean.
The storm season, however, has been intensified by the El Niño weather phenomenon, which has contributed to unprecedented warming.
Neighbouring Sri Lanka, meanwhile, closed schools amid warnings of torrential rain, with the country’s Department of Meteorology warning that storms could trigger flash floods and mudslides.
The military has been placed on alert, Colombo’s Disaster Management Centre said.
India’s weather bureau said it expected the cyclone to cause “total destruction” of thatched houses, localised flooding, the uprooting of power and communication poles, and “widespread damage” to standing crops.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has ordered that the storm be “constantly monitored and advance precautions taken”, his office said in a statement on Monday.
Local media reported that authorities in Andhra Pradesh had ordered evacuations in key low-lying areas and closed “all educational institutions” in some districts from Tuesday until Saturday.
More than 4,700 pregnant women living in potentially dangerous areas had been moved to hospitals, according to The Indian Express newspaper.